Global Investigative Journalism Network (https://gijn.org/category/news/)
The murder of Slovakian journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancee, Martina Kušnírová, both 27, have sparked protests since the killings on February 25. On Friday, tens of thousands gathered at the Slovak National Uprising Square in Bratislava to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Robert Fico’s government and a thorough investigation of Kuciak’s death. Feature image by Tomáš Benedikovič.
When Nino Bakradze was growing up in Georgia in the ’90s, the country was embroiled in a civil war and a post-USSR economic crisis. In a media landscape dominated by state TV, investigative journalism just didn’t happen. The situation hadn’t changed much when she graduated, so she set up iFact to turn the tables. GIJN’s Alexandra Tyan spoke to the team.
In this Q&A, New York Times cybersecurity reporter Nicole Perlroth details the little-understood threat posed by zero-day exploits — hacking capabilities that leverage mistakes in the code populating phones and computers around the world.
WhatsApp’s popularity in Latin America and Africa presents an opportunity for emerging, digital-first titles and smaller newsrooms. Laura Oliver explains how newspapers and startups from Zimbabwe to Brazil and South Africa are using the platform in innovative ways to share their stories.
Architect Alison Killing says that exploring blanked-out tiles on the mapping site Baidu was the first step in tracking down and identifying the detention centers being built by China in Xinjiang, where up to 1 million people are believed to have been detained.
There is no infallible method for interviewing people who have been victims and survivors of traumatic events such as violence, crimes, disasters, or accidents. But Marcela Turati, co-founder of Mexican investigative journalism nonprofit Quinto Elemento Lab, shares recommendations that can be used as a roadmap to conduct a humane, sensitive, and respectful interview.
At least 860 journalists have died from COVID-19 in the last 12 months, according to a European nonprofit that has been tracking cases among media professionals since the start of the pandemic. Latin American countries account for more than half of the tally.
More universities are devoting resources to the teaching and practice of investigative journalism than ever before, and six recently-launched university-based investigative centers joined GIJN late last year. Olivier Holmey spoke to outlets in Norway, Japan, South Africa, and the Americas to find out what lies behind this growing trend.
While female muckrakers are breaking important stories around the world, the obstacles they face in and out of newsrooms can be gender-based, and there are too few networks and resources catering to these issues. So this International Women’s Day GIJN is re-launching an updated version of its guide, “Resources for Women Journalists.”
Freedom House, which released its annual report Freedom in the World this week, has documented the 15th consecutive year of decline in global freedom, finding less than a fifth of the world’s population living in what it considers “free” countries.
In a GIJN webinar titled “Investigating the Radical Right: A Global Perspective,” a panel of four veteran journalists with experience in digging into far right groups shared tips, open source tools, and practical insights on how to track their activities.
